How to write a business plan in 10 steps + free template,Brainstorm an Executive Summary
WebAug 20, · The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in Web6 rows · Oct 11, · What Is a Business Plan? Business Plan Steps. Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan? How WebJan 11, · A business plan is a comprehensive road map for your small business’s growth and development. It communicates who you are, what you plan to do, and how WebNov 28, · The operating plan provides an overview of the company’s physical requirements, such as office space, machinery, labor, supplies, and inventory. For a WebA business plan can be the most important tool a small business owner has, but it doesn't write itself. Learn how to turn your ideas into a solid plan that will give you a roadmap for ... read more
Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved. All you need to do is fill in the blanks. How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started.
Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan. You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery. But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting. For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar.
Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it. One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful. You'll also look at where you stand among your competition and everyone has competition , and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet.
Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business. If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, this guide on how to write a business plan is a good place to start. You can also download our free business plan template , or get started right away with LivePlan. Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business.
It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page. Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis. If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast.
Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business. If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan. A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides. Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference.
With this gallery, you have the option to view specific industry pitches or get inspired by real-world pitch deck examples. Or for a modern pitch solution that helps you create a business plan and pitch deck side-by-side, you may want to check out LivePlan. It will help you build everything needed for outside investment and to better manage your business. Are you an educator looking for real-world business plan examples for your students? With LivePlan, you give your students access to industry-best business plans and help them set goals and track metrics with spreadsheet-free financial forecasts.
All of this within a single tool that includes additional instructional resources that work seamlessly alongside your current classroom setup. With LivePlan, it's not just a classroom project. It's your students planning for their futures. Click here to learn more about business planning for students. Now that you know how to use an example business plan to help you write a plan for your business, it's time to find the right one. Create Your Plan. Find your business plan Trending. Education Business Plans Education Consulting Education Products View All Download now. Events Business Plans Event Planning Weddings View All Try LivePlan. Example business plan format Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format.
You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections: Executive summary The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. Market analysis Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. Financial projections Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. Appendix The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. Types of business plans explained While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan.
Traditional business plan The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Business model canvas The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. You must deliberately manage your revenue streams, and that might require shuffling things around a little to focus on what is working for you. Download the following template to build your business plan from the ground up, considering all the important questions that will help your investors and employees. The old cliche is still true today: A failure to plan is a plan to fail. Your business plan is crucial to the growth of your business, from giving direction, motivation, and context to employees, to providing thoughtful reassurance and risk mitigation to financers.
Before you get your small business up and running , put down a plan that instills confidence and sets you up for success. Pricing strategy guide: How to choose one for your business. Financial forecasting models: 4 methods to consider. Relevant resources to help start, run, and grow your business, delivered twice a month. This content is for information purposes only and should not be considered legal, accounting, or tax advice, or a substitute for obtaining such advice specific to your business. Additional information and exceptions may apply.
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How much investment capital should you accept? Executive summary. The 10 steps to write a business plan are: Create an executive summary Compose your company description Summarize market research and potential Conduct competitive analysis Describe your product or service Develop a marketing and sales strategy Compile your business financials Describe your organization and management Explain your funding request Compile an appendix for official documents But, first things first. What is a business plan? Investors want to know you have: Product-market fit: Have you done the research to determine the demand for your product or service? A solid team in place: Do you have the people you need to support your goals and objectives?
Scalability: Can you grow sales volume without proportional growth in headcount and fixed costs? Why do you need a business plan? Owners with business plans are twice as likely to grow, get investments, or secure loans than those without. Feel confident from day one You're never too small, and it's never too soon to know you're on track for success. Start here. How to write a business plan in 10 steps Start with a clear picture of the audience your plan will address. Create an executive summary Even though it appears first in the plan, write your executive summary last so you can condense essential ideas from the other nine sections. What is an executive summary? How do I write an executive summary?
Example of an executive summary Market research indicates that an increasing number of wealthy consumers in Richmond are interested in landscape architecture based on sustainable design. Compose your company description Within a business plan, your company description contains three elements: Mission statement History Objectives These elements give context to the bigger picture in your business plan, letting investors know the purpose behind your company so the goals make sense as well. What is a mission statement? Effective mission statements should be: Inspirational to make others believe in your vision Emotional to captivate readers and grab their interest Throughout every part of your plan, less is more.
Instead, write it like you would a profile: Founding date Major milestones Location s Number of employees Executive leadership roles Flagship products or services Then, translate that list into a few short paragraphs like the example below. Why do business objectives matter? These goals must be SMART, which stands for: Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time-bound They must also be tied to key results. Summarize market research and potential The next step is to outline your ideal potential customer as well as the actual and potential size of your market. What kind of press coverage do they get? How good is their customer service? What are their sales and pricing strategies? How do they rank on third-party rating platforms? Describe your product or service This section describes the benefits, production process, and life cycle of your products or services, and how what your business offers is better than your competitors.
Develop a marketing and sales strategy Your marketing strategy or marketing plan can be the difference between selling so much that growth explodes or getting no business at all. You should briefly reiterate topics such as your: Value proposition Ideal target markets Existing customer segments Then, add your: Launch plan to attract new business Growth tactics for established businesses to expand Retention strategies like customer loyalty or referral programs Advertising and promotion channels such as search engines, social media, print, television, YouTube, and word of mouth You can also use this section of your business plan to reinforce your strengths and what differentiates you from the competition.
Avoid underestimating business costs Costs, profit margins, and sale prices are closely linked, and many business owners set sale prices without accounting for all costs. Describe your organization and management Your business is only as good as the team that runs it. You should also note: Roles you still need to hire to grow your company The cost of hiring experts to assist operations To make informed business decisions, you may need to budget for a bookkeeper , a CPA, and an attorney. Explain your funding request When outlining how much money your small business needs, try to be as realistic as possible. Remember: An equity owner may expect to have a voice in company decisions, even if they do not own a majority interest in the business.
Tip: Put together a timeline so your potential investors have an idea of what to expect. Some customers may not pay for 30 days or longer, which means the business needs a cash balance to operate. Compile an appendix for official documents Finally, assemble a well-organized appendix for anything and everything readers will need to supplement the information in your plan. Consider any info that: Helps investors conduct due diligence Gives context and easy access to you or your employees Useful details to cover in an appendix include: Deeds, local permits, and legal documents Certifications that bolster your credibility Business registries and professional licenses pertaining to your legal structure or type of business Patents and intellectual properties Industry associations and memberships State and federal identification numbers or codes Key customer contracts and purchase orders Your appendix should be a living section of the business plan, whether the plan is a document for internal reference only or an external call for investors.
Tip: As you include documents in the appendix, create a miniature table of contents and footnotes throughout the rest of the plan linking to or calling attention to them. How to make a business plan that stands out Investors have little patience for poorly written documents. Keep it brief. A typical business plan can range from 10 to 20 pages. As long as you cover the essentials, less is more. Make it easy to read. Divide your document into distinct sections, so that investors can quickly flip between key pieces of information. Know your margins. Double-check for typos and grammatical errors. Then, triple-check. Otherwise, you might risk your credibility. Invest in quality design and printing.
Proper layout, branding, and decent printing or bookbinding give your business plan a professional feel. Be prepared in advance. Have everything ready to go at least two weeks ahead so you have time to make revisions in case of a last-minute change. Refocus your productivity When you wrote your original business plan, you likely identified your specific business and personal goals. Put a timeline together and set a launch date. Realign with your goals Do a gut check to determine whether all of your hard work is still aligned with your original goals and your mission statement. Ask yourself these questions: Are my goals still relevant? Am I still focused on the big picture? Where do I want to be a year from now?
Will my existing plan still take me where I want to go? Repurpose your offerings If your time has become more focused on small projects rather than tangible growth and building a valuable client list, consider packaging your existing products or services differently.
Need help writing your business plan? Explore over free real-world business plan examples from a wide variety of industries to guide you through writing your own plan. If you're looking for an intuitive tool that walks you through the plan writing process, we recommend LivePlan. It includes many of these same SBA-approved business plan examples and is especially useful when applying for a bank loan or outside investment. Before you start exploring our library of business plan examples, it's worth taking the time to understand the traditional business plan format. You'll find that the plans in this library and most investor-approved business plans will include the following sections:.
The executive summary is an overview of your business and your plans. It comes first in your plan and is ideally only one to two pages. You should also plan to write this section last after you've written your full business plan. Your executive summary should include a summary of the problem you are solving, a description of your product or service, an overview of your target market, a brief description of your team, a summary of your financials, and your funding requirements if you are raising money. It includes information about the problem that you're solving, your solution, and how your product or service fits into the existing competitive landscape.
Describe the problem you're solving, how your offering solves the problem, and who your potential competitors are. You'll want to outline your competitive advantages and the milestones you have in mind to successfully start and grow your business. Conducting a market analysis ensures that you fully understand the market that you're entering and who you'll be selling to. This section is where you will showcase all of the information about your potential customers. You'll cover your target market as well as information about the growth of your market and your industry. Focus on outlining why the market you're entering is viable and creating a realistic persona for your ideal customer base. The marketing and sales plan section of your business plan details how you plan to reach your target market segments.
You'll address how you plan on selling to those target markets, what your pricing plan is, and what types of activities and partnerships you need to make your business a success. Use this section to describe your current team and who you need to hire. If you intend to pursue funding, you'll need to highlight the relevant experience of your team members. Basically, this is where you prove that this is the right team to successfully start and grow the business. You will also need to provide a quick overview of your legal structure, location, and history if you're already up and running. Your financial plan should include a sales and revenue forecast, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, and a balance sheet. You may not have established financials of any kind at this stage.
Not to worry, rather than getting all of the details ironed out, focus on making projections and strategic forecasts for your business. You can always update your financial statements as you begin operations and start bringing in actual accounting data. Now, if you intend to pitch to investors or submit a loan application, you'll also need a "use of funds" report in this section. This outlines how you intend to leverage any funding for your business and how much you're looking to acquire. Like the rest of your financials, this can always be updated later on.
The appendix isn't a required element of your business plan. However, it is a useful place to add any charts, tables, definitions, legal notes, or other critical information that supports your plan. These are often lengthier or our-of-place information that simply didn't work naturally into the structure of your plan. You'll notice that in these business plan examples, the appendix mainly includes extended financial statements. While all business plans cover similar categories, the style and function fully depend on how you intend to use your plan.
To get the most out of your plan, it's best to find a format that suits your needs. Here are a few common business plan types worth considering. The tried-and-true traditional business plan is a formal document meant to be used for external purposes. Typically this is the type of plan you'll need when applying for funding or pitching to investors. It can also be used when training or hiring employees, working with vendors, or any other situation where the full details of your business must be understood by another individual. The business model canvas is a one-page template designed to demystify the business planning process. It removes the need for a traditional, copy-heavy business plan, in favor of a single-page outline that can help you and outside parties better explore your business idea.
The structure ditches a linear format in favor of a cell-based template. It encourages you to build connections between every element of your business. It's faster to write out and update, and much easier for you, your team, and anyone else to visualize your business operations. The true middle ground between the business model canvas and a traditional business plan is the one-page business plan. This format is a simplified version of the traditional plan that focuses on the core aspects of your business. By starting with a one-page plan, you give yourself a minimal document to build from. You'll typically stick with bullet points and single sentences making it much easier to elaborate or expand sections into a longer-form business plan.
The Lean Plan is less of a specific document type and more of a methodology. It takes the simplicity and styling of the one-page business plan and turns it into a process for you to continuously plan, test, review, refine, and take action based on performance. It holds all of the benefits of the single-page plan, including the potential to complete it in as little as minutes. However, it's even easier to convert into a full plan thanks to how heavily it's tied to your financials. The overall goal of Lean Planning isn't to just produce documents that you use once and shelve.
Instead, the Lean Planning process helps you build a healthier company that thrives in times of growth and remain stable through times of crisis. Ready to start writing your own plan but aren't sure where to start? Download our free business plan template that's been updated for This simple, modern, investor-approved business plan template is designed to make planning easy. It's a proven format that has helped over 1 million businesses write business plans for bank loans, funding pitches, business expansion, and even business sales. It includes additional instructions for how to write each section and is formatted to be SBA-lender approved.
All you need to do is fill in the blanks. How do you know what elements need to be included in your business plan, especially if you've never written one before? Looking at examples can help you visualize what a full, traditional plan looks like, so you know what you're aiming for before you get started. Here's how to get the most out of a sample business plan. You don't need to find an example business plan that's an exact fit for your business. Your business location, target market, and even your particular product or service may not match up exactly with the plans in our gallery.
But, you don't need an exact match for it to be helpful. Instead, look for a plan that's related to the type of business you're starting. For example, if you want to start a vegetarian restaurant, a plan for a steakhouse can be a great match. While the specifics of your actual startup will differ, the elements you'd want to include in your restaurant's business plan are likely to be very similar. Every startup and small business is unique, so you'll want to avoid copying an example business plan word for word. It just won't be as helpful, since each business is unique. You want your plan to be a useful tool for starting a business —and getting funding if you need it.
One of the key benefits of writing a business plan is simply going through the process. When you sit down to write, you'll naturally think through important pieces, like your startup costs, your target market , and any market analysis or research you'll need to do to be successful. You'll also look at where you stand among your competition and everyone has competition , and lay out your goals and the milestones you'll need to meet. Looking at an example business plan's financials section can be helpful because you can see what should be included, but take them with a grain of salt. Don't assume that financial projections for a sample company will fit your own small business. If you're looking for more resources to help you get started, this guide on how to write a business plan is a good place to start.
You can also download our free business plan template , or get started right away with LivePlan. Think about business planning as something you do often , rather than a document you create once and never look at again. If you take the time to write a plan that really fits your own company, it will be a better, more useful tool to grow your business. It should also make it easier to share your vision and strategy so everyone on your team is on the same page. Keep in mind that businesses that use their plan as a management tool to help run their business grow 30 percent faster than those businesses that don't. For that to be true for your company, you'll think of a part of your business planning process as tracking your actual results against your financial forecast on a regular basis.
If things are going well, your plan will help you think about how you can re-invest in your business. If you find that you're not meeting goals, you might need to adjust your budgets or your sales forecast. Either way, tracking your progress compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business. If you're planning to pitch your business to investors or seek out any funding, you'll need a pitch deck to accompany your business plan.
A pitch deck is designed to inform people about your business. You want your pitch deck to be short and easy to follow, so it's best to keep your presentation under 20 slides. Your pitch deck and pitch presentation are likely some of the first things that an investor will see to learn more about your company. So, you need to be informative and pique their interest. Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference. With this gallery, you have the option to view specific industry pitches or get inspired by real-world pitch deck examples. Or for a modern pitch solution that helps you create a business plan and pitch deck side-by-side, you may want to check out LivePlan.
It will help you build everything needed for outside investment and to better manage your business. Are you an educator looking for real-world business plan examples for your students? With LivePlan, you give your students access to industry-best business plans and help them set goals and track metrics with spreadsheet-free financial forecasts.
Create a business plan,Why do you need a business plan?
WebA business plan can be the most important tool a small business owner has, but it doesn't write itself. Learn how to turn your ideas into a solid plan that will give you a roadmap for WebAug 20, · The business plan should have a section that explains the services or products that you’re offering. This is the part where you can also describe how they fit in Web6 rows · Oct 11, · What Is a Business Plan? Business Plan Steps. Do I Need a Simple or Detailed Plan? How WebJan 11, · A business plan is a comprehensive road map for your small business’s growth and development. It communicates who you are, what you plan to do, and how WebNov 28, · The operating plan provides an overview of the company’s physical requirements, such as office space, machinery, labor, supplies, and inventory. For a ... read more
Luckily, just like you can leverage an example business plan template to write your plan, we also have a gallery of over 50 pitch decks for you to reference. Applicable laws may vary by state or locality. Start here. You need a business plan because the majority of venture capitalists VCs and all banking institutions will not invest in a startup or small business without a solid, written plan. Legal Privacy Security.
Provide a high-level map of the customer experience from start to finish, including the spaces in which you will interact with the customer online, retail, etc. Explain your funding request When outlining how much money your small business needs, try to be as realistic as possible. Am I still focused on the big picture? Start your plan. Either way, tracking your help doing a business plan compared to your plan can help you adjust quickly when you identify challenges and opportunities—it's one of the most powerful things you can do to grow your business. Frequently Asked Questions.
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